Broderick, Again - Richard Broderick

Broderick, Again - Richard Broderick - a Green candidate for the St. Paul School Board - is at it again with his latest press release:

Of the key proposals I have presented in my race for the St. Paul School Board none has generated more excitement than my call for the development and implementation of a comprehensive, district-wide, K-12 peace curriculum to be accompanied by the creation of student-run committees for -violent conflict resolution in every junior and senior high school.

Mr. Broderick is the same guy who said, a few months ago, that he'd use the School System to essentially indoctrinate students with a Green worldview:

"The core principles of the Green Party -- ecological wisdom, grassroots
democracy, social justice, and non-violence -- are all rooted in a categorical
rejection of exploitation and domination as acceptable means to our ends in
life," Broderick said. "In order for our society to adopt these values (as it
must, if we are to survive on this planet), we need to nurture the instinctively
Green consciousness of our young people through the comprehensive application of
these principles to curriculum, instruction, administration, and district-wide
decision-making processes.

Scary enough yet?

No. It's not.

Here are excerpts from Broderick's latest press release:

Briefly, upon winning in the general election I will establish and chair a task force made up of volunteers from the school district as well representatives from organizations like Friends for a Non-Violent World with a proven track record in training people in the theory and techniques of non-violence. At the end of the current school year, I will gather recommendations from this task force -- recommendations that will cover course content, budgeting, and a time table for implementation -- and embark upon a campaign to raise money from one or more of the many foundations dedicated to shaping a more peaceful world in order to hire professional curriculum writers to develop a peace curriculum for St. Paul's public schools. Cost to the district? Zero.

In other words, the St. Paul Public Schools' curriculum will be even more devoted to pacifism than it currently is.

At "no cost".

Meanwhile, come January I will ask FVNW to work with individual schools to provide training for students involved in conflict resolution committees. These committees will differ from the peer mediation groups that now exist
in some area schools in that they will involve the entire student body, be transparent rather than working behind closed doors, and -- a key contrast -- be proactive, addressing the underlying sources of conflict, from racial tension to taunting to disrespectful behavior in and out of the classroom, before the conflict has a chance to simmer over into violent confrontation.

First - this sort of involvement can be useful - in schools that are genuinely democratic (and by that I'm referring to Sudbury-model schools, which democratize the entire education process, down to the curriculum). In schools that are fundamentally authoritarian (as all traditional schools are), I have to wonder, especially about the "These committees will differ from the peer mediation groups that now exist bin some area schools in that they will involve the entire student body, be transparent rather than working behind closed doors, and -- a key contrast -- be proactive, addressing the underlying sources of conflict" bit.

"Be proactive"...how? Sending troops of students through the schools to root out evidence of "violent" badthink?

The Hitler Youth were proactive, too.

In a world of increasing levels of interpersonal, intercommunal, and international violence, the creation of a district-wide peace curriculum is not only the right thing to do morally, it is also a perfect example of "practical idealism." In addition to providing students with the tools they need to confront conflict without violence and to help create a more peaceful future, a peace curriculum will also end up saving the St. Paul school district money and resources at a time when it faces critical budget shortfalls.

Unstated - they'll "save the money" by importing an ideology from an organization from "Friends for a Non-Violent World", a group with a very strident agenda. Can you imagine the school district getting curriculum help from Gun Owners of America (the people who think the NRA are too mushy)? It's analogous!

By providing students from kindergarten on with the techniques, theories, and ethical principles of non-violence, a comprehensive district-wide peace curriculum will cause an immediate improvement in classroom demeanor.

This, I'm afraid, is completely wrong.

I'll say this now; a little "violence" in grade school prevents a LOT of violence later. Roughhousing can be scary, but it teaches people - especially boys - the limits of their inherent aggressiveness. If those limits aren't learned early, then the child grows up not knowing them at all - and violence becomes serious business, rather than something the child learned to eschew the hard (and direct) way.

I suggest to you that the current discipline problems in the classroom are associated with the feminization of education, and the artificial focus on "non-violence" that it has bred.

I am writing Mr. Broderick right now to ask for clarification. In the unlikely event I get any, I'll let you know.

Posted by Mitch at September 9, 2003 09:35 AM